Chương 24: [BL] 24. Dream of Dragon [2]

[Kobold Bone Warrior—Level 11] Five of them. All five swarmed over the three poor guards trapped in the middle of the shield formation. One bone greatsword was used to lever against a shield edge and blow it upward. The guard woman was exposed, and she was not quick enough to defend herself as one sword rammed through her breast, holding her still through her choked cough, and another one lumbered through the air to slam her head into an explosion of blood.

"No!" the other young guard screamed.

"Charge, lad! Charge at them! Don't try to parry them! Charge!" Willow shoved down her fear and let her instinct take over as two of the Bone warriors pounced at her, one slicing its heavy sword in an upward swing. Shera took Willow's cloak and pulled her backward.

"I will dissolve the mist! So, just hold on!" Willow sheathed her sword in quick motion and swung both of her hands down. Two Sever lashed forward at each kobold—and perhaps it was due to their strength or armour, but both Dark Winds did not cut through them as she had expected. Instead, they just wounded the part of their skin that peeked through their armour. A mere scratch.

"Shit," Willow muttered and kept backing away. The surrounding mist dissolved away, letting the blue crystal above shine down on them. Willow did not even try to glance at the battlefield. She threw another Sever at one of them that got too close, but the riftborn puffed out its chest. Its strewn bone armour dispersed the dark wind—and the oversized sword slammed down on her. She jumped back, avoiding certain death.

The second kobold was about to rush at her until a mist swept across its head and attacked its mouth. That caused it to stumble and cough. This is my chance. And Shera saw it too. Instead of running, Shera closed in before the kobold could even raise its sword. But she was awkward as she had to open her left palm toward the other kobold to keep her spell up, only leaving her right arm to engage the monster. Still, she managed to find a gap when the kobold lifted its sword again and exposed its armpit.

Shera thrust her sword forward, but the kobold stepped back and dodged her, causing Shera to awkwardly stumble forward. When it was about to kill her, Willow had built her Ravenous Spear. Fear flashed in the kobold's eyes as it had no doubt already seen what the spear could do, so it whirled its sword toward Willow, who was not in range of its swing, but still swung down regardless when Willow released her spear.

In one strong downward strike, the Ravenous Spear dissolved under the weight of the kobold's bone sword. While that spiked fear through her body, she did not stop; Willow connected to her next attack and flicked her right finger to send Sever right at its eyes. The Kobold let its bone helmet do the job, although the whiplash still wound it across its open face. But the actual attack was still coming.

Shera ducked and propped her sword up—this time with both hands; she lanced upward, goring through the Kobold's armpit. It thrashed in pain, stumbling to the left as Shera's sword still stuck awkwardly. Willow saw the change, and her instinct took over now. Dark wind brimmed around her, and she dissolved away and reappeared right behind the kobold; then Ravenous Eyes identified the kobold's weak point. Willow saw its back knee unprotected, and she did not hesitate to send a Sever down.

After its back knee tore, the kobold lost its balance and dropped to its knees. Willow would have loved to finish the kill, but she realised the weakness of her Predator Step, so she drew her short sword and tossed it to Shera, whose face contorted in fear, but she still caught the sword and ran to drive it through the kobold's eyes. Willow whirled around and saw the other Kobold bone-warrior already upon her with its sword swinging in a crescent. She reacted in time and dissolved again.

The Kobold's sword swung through the dark wind and finished its arc. Behind it, Willow materialised after a swirling wind, and with two fingers, she swooped down, sending dark wind to cross across its back knee again. The kobold let out a pained whine as it stumbled forward, but with one leg still strong, it hopped up and down and turned toward her to swing an sloppy arc at Willow. As Willow had no shield or sword left, she was forced to use another Predator Step.

She appeared right beneath its swinging sword this time. Willow let out a yelp as she covered her head with her arm, letting the swing finish before chiding herself for not recognising that she could have sent Sever point-blank into its neck, but by then the kobold had noticed her and kicked her right across her chest. The pain came instantly, and the impact sent her flying and rolling across the ground. She groaned, grasping her chest and coughing out blood. A metallic taste tinged her tongue. She gasped.

The lucky part was that she had at least been sent to safety.

"Willow! Stand!" Shera shouted. She gurgled and forced herself to stand and saw the kobold was on its knees because of Shera's spell that choked the riftborn with her mist. She could leave her, and Shera would kill it just fine, except for the fact that the other three Kobold Bone Warriors were about to descend on them—their bone swords marred with slick blood. So they're dead, she mournfully thought, but shoved it all down and she charged onward, building Scythe on her left fingers.

Noticing her, the kobold roared, and Shera's mist dissipated. The girl let out a cry and fell backward—but Willow did not stop. The Kobold did not bother to grip its sword; it reached Willow with its hand, but she ducked it and dashed under it, then she swept her hand up, carving through its neck as dark wind followed her finger trajectory. Blood spurted on her, and Willow quickly stepped back, letting the kobold collapse. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

[You recover one Dark Wind rune] How many runes did she spend on this fight alone? And she only recovered one? That was bad; she needed to find easy— The three kobolds with their bodies clad in bone armour charged at her—their bones, claymore that still dripped with blood sent a deep fear to her; especially just behind them were the sight of bodies that had been cut into two, and lay in a pool of blood—it… it. Willow did not think. She screamed and poured her runes to Ravenous Spear.

The Bone warriors appeared startled, and hesitation filled their run, but they were close, and they knew the only way to survive was to win. Willow swept her hand forward, and Dark Spear soared right into one of them, who tried to slam it down with its sword again, but this one resisted, deflecting even the heavy sword and lancing through the bone armour in a sickening crack and rip as it gored a large hole through its chest.

An after-wind billowed like a gust, pushing Willow's cloak and sending the other two beside it to stagger away. They fought against the wind, and once it settled, they resumed their charge until the sound of horse hooves drew their attention. Credit to them, they split almost instantly, with one rushing at Willow. She drew a sharp breath and listened to her fighting instinct. The instinct of the Ravenous Wind.

Willow dissolved and materialised behind the Kobold—about to send Sever again at it, but the Kobold whirled with its sword, and Willow threw her body back and crashed down. Her back hurt, but she forced herself to stand and immediately rolled left again as the sword slammed against the spot where she had been lying. In a sudden athleticism, the kobold dropped its sword. A move that fooled Willow, thinking now it was time to build another Ravenous Spear.

Then, in a burst of speed, it closed the distance and with a fist, punched her stomach through the dark wind, sending her rolling yet again, this time closer to the kobolds' encampment. In the very last second, the Dark Wind resisted the punch, allowing it to become softer upon contact with Willow's body. Despite that, her vision spun, and she struggled to get up. She leaned against the bone stake behind her and watched the kobold clenching a bleeding hand. Yeah, serve you right.

The horseman fought against the bone warrior, and she should help—she froze at the sensation of the object she leaned against--the bone stake. Shit, shit. She turned around and saw Kobold archers still above their makeshift stone tower, and they aimed at her. A bowstring strummed, and the arrow almost hit her if she had not dissolved in dark Wind and reappeared right behind the archers. They must have sensed the wind, for they spun around, but by then Willow had already been in motion to sweep down two Sever.

Dark Wind wailed in jubilation and whooshed through, carving four kobolds upside down, splaying their bodies apart from head to neck. [You recover four Dark Wind runes] Four? Where's the last one? A bowstring pulled taut, and Willow found herself face to face with a kobold that was about to draw its arrow, its eyes zeroed on her throat.

"Sever." The kobold's neck split apart, and blood splurged up through its stump before its body craned down and fell off the tower. She huffed. Her body was tired, aching as if blood pumped through every limb and her head. Can I just bloody rest here? Her stomach still hurt, and when she reached up against the wooden makeshift archer shield to observe the battlefield, pain flared. Her knees gave out, and she wheezed a cough.

"Goddamn it," she croaked, barely having any strength to peek. After a while, she took a long breath and stood, about to see how the battlefield devolved, until she saw it. Just below a circular dome-like hut, the kobold half-dragon stood with its spear ready and one wing left. The after-wound of Dismember had shown its effect through the various shredding across its body, but this time, it put on light bone armour—not as much as the Kobold Bone Warrior, but enough to cover it for another fight.

It stepped forward, pointed its spear at her, and challenged her. Willow raised her eyebrow and sputtered a laugh at it.

"Yeah, not happening," she coughed and pointed her finger for a much-deserved Dismember, until in one quick motion it drew its spear and threw it with an unfair pinpoint accuracy toward Willow. She reacted and dissolved into wind. When she opened her eyes, she found the blue gleam of crystal light was no longer on her, and above her was the roof of the hut the half-dragon had just stood in front of. The half-dragon turned and saw her in time. It flashed its talons and lunged at her.

Willow jumped back and, with a pointed finger, she screamed.

"Dismember!" Dark Wind descended upon it and shredded it apart, or at least she wished it did. The light bone armour provided much-needed protection, but it was not enough as Dark Wind kept cruelly shredding more slices of magic at it, carving into its open flesh, even slashing apart the bone. Not enough. Fuelled by the need to kill it, Willow opened her palm and built a Ravenous Spear right in front of her. She immediately launched it, thinking the kobold would be too busy defending against Dismember.

But then it opened its eyes, and its talons glowed with bright red heat, catching the dark spear, controlling it, and sending it bursting in a wind gale that swirled around the hut. The Dismember stopped, and along with it Willow's mage outfit exploded in a burst of light, leaving her classless. The half-dragon stumbled forward, blood slicking its broken bone armour. Willow pretended to step back and invite the riftborn until the half-dragon reached the middle of the hut; she reached for her other class.

She reached for her Guard class, and light danced around her, forming a Sheran Guard outfit with its brigantine covering her body and a proud symbol of the tree displayed right in the middle of her tabard.

Name: Willow [Guard] Class: [Guard—Level 2] Outfit: [Sheran Village Guard's Uniform] Rune: [Fireflies 3/3] Attribute: [5 Strength, 1 Dexterity, 3 Vitality, 2 Constitution, 2 Sense, 2 Arcanic] [+5% All Attributes] [3 Fireflies Rune] Spell: [Sword of Light] [2] Enhancer: [Guard Honour] [Strong Strike] [Fire Light] [Fire Light]—Warm orbs of fire will be summoned around the Guard based on the Guard's current Fireflies Runes count.

Firelight can be infused into the Guard's spell, if wished, granting +20% Arcanic for every Firelight imbued; or the Guard can imbue Firelight into her own body and receive +10% All Attributes. Grant [1 Arcanic] [3 Fireflies Runes] Three firelights swayed around her as shimmering ember fireflies—the same count as her Fireflies Runes. She opened her hand, and a sword of light brimmed in her hand. She held it two-handed.

It was long, twice the length of the short sword, and its blade was thin, unlike the guards' swords she used to see. This one was light and had enough length that she had confidence she could showcase what she'd learned with Mera. Also, information about the Sword of Light entered her. Fireflies dropped down into the sword, and its body melted, lending the steel a twinge of orange around its edge. [Fire Light blessed the Sword of Light] [+ 20% Arcanic as long as the imbuement lasts]